Lots of great things are going on in
District VI. I want to share a few.

Congratulations to Sedalia RC Flyers,
club number 2818, and the Henry
County Wright Flyers, club number

1121, for applying for and winning Take
off And Grow (TAG) Grants in the
amount of $1,000 each. Additionally,
District VI clubs that received flying site
grants this year included the Fort Wayne
Flying Circuits, receiving $68 and the
Huntington County Modelers that
received $119.90.

The following was submitted by
Doug Leslie, from the Southeast
Missouri Modelers Association in Cape
Girardeau, Missouri.

“Our club has been working to inform
our local, state, and national officials
about the impacts of the recent FAA
regulations concerning model aircraft.

Club member Mark McCoy sent letters
to all of the elected officials informing
them of these concerns and providing a
point of contact should they have public
inquiries or concerns about the hobby.

“In response, Sen. Roy Blunt’s office
had a representative, Caroline Yielding,
attend our club meeting Thursday
evening, April 7. She was interested
in the club’s activities and concerns
about recent FAA regulations on the
hobby. She planned to visit our flying
site, Galaxy Park Model Airfield, on
Saturday, April 9, 2016, and bring
her sons to experience flying a trainer
aircraft. The included photos show
Caroline with our club officers and
flying a quadcopter after the meeting.

“You are invited to attend our
upcoming 5th Annual Extreme Flight

The following comes from Bryan Himes,
principal at Leeton High School in
Missouri.

At the beginning of the school year,
I spoke to the students about the
expectations I had for them, as well as
what I hoped we could do as a school. I
told them about my desire to give them
the freedom to explore their passions,
and if they had an idea to let me know.

Student Andrew Sites came to me
and asked if they could have a club to
learn about and fly drones. This quickly
morphed into not only wanting to fly
drones, but also assemble them.

Since that time, Andrew has gotten
five other students to join the drone
club. Through his supervision, the
students have practiced flying drones on
computer simulators. Ultimately, they
have gained the skills needed to fly small
drones and the quadcopter the students
put together with some help from
Robert Sites, Andrew’s father.

Ideas are wonderful, but being able
to see them in action takes the efforts
of other people as well. To help fund
this endeavor, money was donated by
our school’s student council as well as
a gracious donation by an anonymous
family. The family donated the money
months ago with no restrictions other
than asking it to be spent for something
with a positive purpose.

Without the generosity of a few, this
unique learning opportunity would not
have been possible. Andrew hopes that
by the end of next year, he will have
passed along enough knowledge for
another student to be able to take over
and help teach others how to assemble
and fly remote-piloted aircraft (RPAs).

All of these students are now
members of the AMA, and have
recently been able to visit Whiteman
Air Force Base and tour the 20th Attack
Squadron Facility. The students and
their principal were able to gain access
to the area where they sit and operate
the MQ- 1 Predator, one of the military’s
RPAs. The students were able to sit in
the chairs where they fly and learn how
the RPAs are operated and their purpose
in the global fight on terrorism.

It has been a great learning experience
and the students are excited to build on
what they have accomplished this year.